A Gallery of Fine Art

Duck, Duck, Goose by Dana Feagin

When the title “Duck, Duck, Goose” came to me, I was was very excited to start painting. So excited, that I didn’t give much thought to the actual composition of the painting – I would just figure it out as I painted. I wanted it to be less detailed than my usual paintings, more free flowing and fun. That was my “plan”.

The painting started with the three water fowl in large circles across the canvas, but once drawn in, looked like animals trapped in a sideways traffic light. Then, it morphed into the general layout you see above, except with one duck sitting and the other standing on one leg. They both looked off balance. I added two legs for each duck – and then spent a very long time mulling over what to do with all that extra background space. I could cut the canvas down and put it on smaller stretcher bars (but I already had the perfect frame), or add something else to the composition.

I looked at this painting almost daily. I sought advice from artist friends. I considered adding a swimming pool behind the ducks, swirling musical notes for the “dancing” ducks, and confetti for more color. After three months, I gave in to my standby solution – polka dots. I am happy with the painting now, but it’s still not quite what I thought it would be; this fun idea for a painting took several detours on the journey to completion and racked up a lot of studio time. Thank goodness, I already have a title!